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Popular New Video App ‘Vine’ Has a Huge Porn Problem — And It Even Affects Innocent Searches

Jan. 28, 2013 10:43am
Vine 6 Second Video App for Twitter on Apple Store Shows Pornographic Content

(Image: Vine screenshot)

Last week, Twitter launched a mobile app for Apple products that allows users to share 6-second, real-time video clips (as of this writing, it’s currently number seven in the “free” section of the app store). “Vine” has already been hailed as cool and addictive with loads of potential. But it also has a big problem: It’s being called creepy and has a huge porn issue.

As Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann wrote on the app’s blog, the posts are “about abbreviation — the shortened form of something larger.”

“They’re little windows into the people, settings, ideas and objects that make up your life,” Hofmann wrote. “They’re quirky, and we think that’s part of what makes them so special.”

Those “windows” also include peeks into a seedy side. That problem has become apparent when searching the app and also while watching the equally viral feed on Vinepeek (Vine is the app while Vinepeek is a completely unaffiliated website pulling together content from the app). A quick look Monday morning mostly showed people capturing their daily routines (someone walking their dog, another biking to work, others riding the subway). But users also saw this message (below).

Vine 6 Second Video App for Twitter on Apple Store Shows Pornographic Content

(Image via Business Insider)

That’s what comes up ​sometimes ​after graphic content is uploaded and reported. But not always.

As Business Insider pointed out, a hardcore pornographic clip showed up in Vinepeek’s “Editor’s Picks” reel Monday. It’s worth noting, the editor’s picks might not be hand-selected by a real human being — it might be a program randomly selecting from various feeds.

Still, Vine has been criticized widely the last few days for its pornographic content. The Atlantic Wire reported that it might have taken a little while for the collective Internet to notice the problem, but take note it has.

And the bigger issue is that like Reddit, Instagram and other social sharing websites that have a racier underside, Vine and Vinepeek can lead users to pornography, whether they intend to find it or not. Users don’t even have to type more nefarious keywords like “porn” or “nude” to turn up X-rated results.

We downloaded the app and tested the innocent keywords like “girls” (we tried to put ourselves in the position of a teen or child who had downloaded the app). It didn’t take long (two seconds of scrolling) to come across eye-popping content. One video featured a girl dressing for her day, but with “nude” detail. While the woman covers up her sensitive areas, it doesn’t leave much for the imagination. It also includes the tag “nude”, which not surprisingly quickly leads to much more graphic content (especially since many of the “nude” videos include the tag “porn”).

Vine 6 Second Video App for Twitter on Apple Store Shows Pornographic Content

This blurred screenshot shows the first video that shows up for the search “girl” using the Vine app. (Image: Vine screenshot/Jon Seidl)

To be fair, the home page of the Vinepeek site partially warns that videos like those above could pop up. In bold text it reads:  This stream is coming straight from Vine and is unmoderated. You have been warned! :)

But the app calls into question Apple’s own policy, the Atlantic Wire pointed out:

These App Store restrictions on pornographic content have been around as long as the App Store. Surely in the past five or so years, the moderators know a porn magnet when they see one. Vine is hardly the first video-sharing app to make it through the approval process, not to mention the many photo-sharing apps. (And Apple’s certainly not afraid of enforcing those rules, as we learned when it yanked the 500px app after it started to become home to “pornographic images and material.”) It’s no anomaly that Vine made through, though.

So it’s hard to believe that the App Store didn’t consider the fact that people might upload pictures of their penises to Vine. It’s more likely that they did and decided to see how Twitter would deal with it, when it became a problem.

Twitter — again, which is behind Vine — has responded to the questionable content. In a statement on The Verge, the company says:

Users can report videos as inappropriate within the product if they believe the content to be sensitive or inappropriate (e.g. nudity, violence, or medical procedures). Videos that have been reported as inappropriate have a warning message that a viewer must click through before viewing the video.

Uploaded videos that are reported and determined to violate our guidelines will be removed from the site, and the user that posted the video may be terminated.

Vine’s own terms of use does not mention a ban on pornography or inappropriate content. In fact, it reads that users understand that by using the app they “may be exposed to Content that might be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate, or in some cases, postings that have been mislabeled or are otherwise deceptive.”

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Comments (16)

  • Mephisto
    Posted on January 29, 2013 at 2:22pm

    And…what’s the problem?

    Report this comment

    Mephisto  
  • Ironworker3366
    Posted on January 29, 2013 at 3:19am

    With the decimation of society by the media outlets and shows like 16 and pregnant, Jersey Shore, the montage of “dating shows” and the plethora of other “reality TV” this kind of freedom of speech is a shame that this is where we are going with this Right given to us by our God. Taking God out of our Schools, out of our TV programming and replacing it with Gay awareness and MTV is just a part of how we got here. Glens Book, The Overton Window is spot on when it comes to the roll media plays in changing what was once appalling into what is now the norm. My children now, select what they are going to watch on TV, give me the time that it is on and if I give permission, they will see it. So many families now give their children the freedom of a TV in their room and the kids just watch everything and anything. What happened to reading or the erector set or drawing or comic book and stamp collecting……. not only that but what about a roll model? No Super Man or Bat Man. There are no Good moral teaching shows on. Who remembers David and Goliath the cartoon…… help, HELPPP

    Report this comment

    Ironworker3366  
  • Gourdy
    Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:21pm

    Wow, and anyone finds this shocking or surprising in some way? There is no way to control this.

    Report this comment

    Gourdy  
  • The_Cabrito_Goat
    Posted on January 28, 2013 at 3:01pm

    Back to the drawing board, Twitter

    Report this comment

    The_Cabrito_Goat  
  • jcldwl
    Posted on January 28, 2013 at 12:37pm

    I’m glad my world doesn’t revolve around the latest app. My cell phone is used for making and receiving phone calls and texts. That’s all I need. Smart phones are for numbskulls.

    Report this comment

    jcldwl  
  • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
    Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:59am

    If theBlaze is worried about Apple Apps, they should fix their website to be more iPad friendly, as I have been requesting or the last 5 months, or so. I am still having to switch over to iSwifter to watch flash videos, but I guess it isn’t theBlaze’s fault what format the video is in, but they cohld convert it.

    Report this comment

    Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
  • RaydocX
    Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:58am

    … and this is ‘loaded with potential’ for what?
    6 seconds… in a world where the powers that be are already geared for the ‘sound bite,’ whether to offer it up a la the Dems, or to desperately try to avoid it if you’re a Republican…

    at least knowing of the… difficulty will keep me from letting my kiddos join in with the fun right away… at least until there are sufficicent moderators to screen and exclude problems… waiting for ‘users to report’ both leaves inappropriate content up and provides an avenue of abuse for excluding non-offensive content that merely conflicts with a troll’s position…

    Report this comment

    RaydocX  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:58am

    The Apple doesn’t fall far from the Vine…..

    Report this comment

    The-Monk  
    • Supah_Patriot
      Posted on January 28, 2013 at 11:13am

      Apples don’t grow on vines.

      Supah_Patriot  
    • Supah_Patriot
      Posted on January 28, 2013 at 11:23am

      Yes I do. In order for a joke to make sense, there needs to be some twist on reality. A setup, if you will. Yours is no joke, just a wish for a pun that’s just out of your reach.

      Report this comment

      Supah_Patriot  
    • MisterSarcastic
      Posted on January 28, 2013 at 12:45pm

      Supah….take a pill, dude.

      Report this comment

      MisterSarcastic  
    • MisterSarcastic
      Posted on January 28, 2013 at 1:22pm

      Apple vines:
      http://www.bhg.com/advice/gardening/vines/apple-vines/

      Report this comment

      MisterSarcastic  
    • MyUserNameWasTaken
      Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:50pm

      MisterSarcastic, did you not read the answer in the article you posted?

      “Thanks for writing. Apples grow on trees, not vines, but they can be trained into vine-like shapes through a process called espalier. You can do espalier to just about any kind of tree, so if you’d like to grow apples like this, pick your favorite variety and follow the instructions on the link above.

      —Justin, Senior Garden Editor, BHG.com”

      Report this comment

      MyUserNameWasTaken  
  • chips1
    Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:54am

    Type in the word “plantation” and up pops an Obama speech. Horrible!!!!

    Report this comment

    chips1  
    • Salamander
      Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:57pm

      Obama wouldn’t know a plantation from a clay pigeon! That cotton-pickin squatter is just way too smug for my taste! It makes you really wonder WHO is behind him!

      Report this comment

      Salamander  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:51am

    Gosh, who could have seen that coming?

    Report this comment

    Gonzo  

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